Sonny's Forum Replies

Isen Torr are a side project of Solstice mainman Rich Walker and the Mighty & Superior EP is, sadly, their only release to date. Unsurprisingly, they still carry a lot of Solstice's DNA and with Walker's guitar work having a distinctive sound it would be hard to distance themselves too much from the doomier outfit without a complete change of musical style. The two tracks on here, Mighty & Superior and The Theomachist were actually written for Solstice's follow up to the imperious New Dark Age album, but Solstice were inactive at the time so Walker started Isen Torr with the intention of releasing three EPs, but the other two never materialised and Walker disbanded the outfit after the death of vocalist Tony Taylor in a motorcycle accident in 2010.

These two tracks of epic heavy metal are really just Solstice material with a faster, Iron Maiden-esque galloping tempo and more expansive lead work. The lyrics mine the same seam as Solstice, with reference to Dark Age, Anglo-Saxon England and it's warriors and battles. Tony Taylor, who was vocalist with Twisted Tower Dire until 2006, puts in a fine performance in front of the mike with his power metal style suiting the material very well. Walker pretty much lets himself go with a couple of killer riffs and solos being wielded like a sharpened battle axe blade, left, right and centre. There is more similarity with the material on 2018's Solstice full-length, White Horse Hill, than the preceding album and as such, Mighty & Superior serves as a pointer to where Walker wanted to take his music going forward.

If you like to revel in the sometimes OTT nature of heavy metal and it's larger-than-life expression of power and glory then these two tracks are a great pointer to the potential of a sadly curtailed outfit who dealt in that OTT currency without ever sounding overly cheesy, but stayed just the right side of the line whilst most definitely "playing on ten".

(Strong)4/5

Zarathustra - In Hora Mortis (2006)

Zarathustra are unfamiliar to me and, judging by the lack of a single rating for any of their albums, to everyone else here on Metal Academy. Well, they are a German black metal band who formed in 1996, releasing three albums between 2000 and 2006, In Hora Mortis being the last one to date. The band still officially exist, albeit having been on hold for a while and drummer Mersus, who was skinsman for Deströyer 666 for a decade, is the only original member still in the band.

My first playthrough was whilst out dog-walking during an early spring snow flurry and In Hora Mortis made for a very apt companion on that trip as it has a frostbitten edge to it that was very much enhanced by the billowing white stuff falling from those Northern Skies. Zarathustra play quite fundamental second-wave black metal and fans of bands like Immortal should feel right at home with In Hora Mortis. Most of the tracks are medium paced with occasional blasting sections, similarly to Immortal, and they have enough melody to them to make each track memorable in it's own right and to stop the album sounding samey and forgettable. Producing actual "songs" seems to have gone out of fashion a bit in black metal circles, but rather, a huge amount of bands strive to produce "pieces" that lean heavily on dissonance and avant-garde stylings, Zarathustra, however, most definitely do not fall into that category, they still understand the benefits of a well-crafted song that can be recalled after the disc has finished playing and that makes the listener want to bang their head and pummell the air with their fists! They have crafted some fine black metal riffs here with some tasty lead work, the rhythm section is strong, Mersus providing a decent approximation of an artillery battery on overdrive with his skinwork. Vocalist Hurricane (Dennis Freiberger) has an abrasive harsh bark that suits the tracks very well and sounds suitably evil whilst still being clear enough to understand the lyrics. All the songs are strong, but there is a brace of tracks in the middle of the album, Salvation from Being and Crown of Creation that could blow the balls off a charging mammoth at forty paces!

I guess In Hora Mortis is one of those albums that often gets short shrift from a large percentage of metalheads simply for geing "generic", despite the fact that this is actually a very good slab of no-frills early second-wave worship. Personally I am very happy to have crossed path with this terrific chunk of horns-in-the-air, unpretentious black metal goodness and once more the review draft seems to have come up trumps for me. I will definitely be looking into these guys further.

(Strong)4/5

Nocturnus - The Key (1990)

I heard this ages ago and wasn't terribly impressed, only affording it a measly three out of five, however I have come quite a long way in my exposure to and appreciation of death metal in the meantime, so a reappraisal is probably long overdue. First off, this is nothing like as technical as I remember it being and that, for me, is a big plus as I am not especially fond of technical death metal (or thrash metal for that matter). In fact, despite the fact that there is a lot of frenetic fretwork during the solos on The Key, I am not even sure this counts as technical death metal, or at least not by modern standards. One thing for certain though is that Nocturnus cannot be accused of producing an album that is a clone of other popular releases from the time, the numerous guitar solos and the inclusion of keyboards on a death metal album was certainly not de rigeur for the day.

The foundation of the album is solid, with some terrific riffs, a few of which still seem to hold a fair bit of thrash metal DNA and the rhythm section turn in a fine performance (especially listening to the FDR edition). The keyboards are an interesting addition and, unlike most other death metal bands that use them, they aren't used here for a gothic horror effect, but instead they are quite thin-sounding and reinforce the science fiction aesthetic that the band were striving for. The big draw here though has got to be the lead work of Mike Davis and Sean McNenney whose guitars howl and squeal through almost the entire runtime, it sounding like their fingers must have been an almost constant blur on their fretboards. The great thing with The Key is that the technical guitar work never interrupts the flow of the tracks, as one of my bugbears with tech-death is that the constant changes and shifts in tracks often robs them of forward impetus and leaves them floundering. Here the solos seem to add even more velocity to the tracks and gives them an increased impetus. The big letdown on The Key are Mike Browning's vocals which just don't carry the necessary evilness or strength that the better vocalists of the time achieved, being buried in the mix a bit doesn't help their cause much either and takes away a significant ingredient of top tier death metal bands of the early nineties.

So, in summation, Nocturnus but together an album that marked them apart from most of their competitors in Floridian death metal and in so doing helped lay the foundations for an offshoot genre of the still expanding death metal genre. I am not going to pretend that it has shot up to the top of my death metal appreciation list, but it is a much finer album than I gave it credit for way back when, the science fiction theme makes a nice change from the constant charnel house themes of their contemporaries and it is certainly an enjoyable enough listen.

4/5

Hexer - Abyssal (2023)

Released 17th February 2023 self-released

I have been a huge fan of Hexer going right back to the first demo in 2015 and was made up to see they were releasing a new album, three years on from 2020's Realm of the Feathered Serpent. The Germans have never been easy to pigeonhole and I think they have made it even more difficult this time around with an album that spans several genres and displays multiple influences, all whilst retaining that bassy, cavernous and hypnotic vibe they have employed since day one. Abyssal employs aspects of death, black and sludge metal then twists them together with elements of psychedelia for a hypnotic, acid-fuelled trip through an extreme metal landscape. The effect is most reminiscent of a band like Oranssi Pazuzu or, more specifically their spin-off, Waste of Space Orchestra.

There have been some big changes in the Hexer camp since the release of Realm of the Feathered Serpent with the band being reduced to a duo and guitarist / vocalist Marvin Giehr being the only remaining member from that album's lineup. The other member is new drummer Melvin Cieslar, so Abyssal is an album lacking the keyboards from RotFS, resulting in a stripped-back presentation with less thickness to the sound, particularly at the bottom end and no building of atmospheric layers. The tracks are generally quicker-paced and as there is considerably less doom metal influence, Abyssal sounds more savage and aggressive. Also gone, in the main, are any post-metal build-up and release elements that did feature from time to time on the band's previous material, thus adding to that more feral sound. I guess to some folks this all sounds like Abyssal is a lesser release than it's predecessor, but I must disagree. The songs are more focussed and immediate than the sometimes meandering nature of the tracks on RotFS and as such are, on the whole, more memorable. Whereas Realm... is an album that you can let wash over you and relax you with it's hypnotic nature, Abyssal is more of an album for on the go and firing you up.

In truth, I am not exactly sure how I would genre tag Abyssal. It features so many elements in equal part that it is difficult to definitively label, whether it be death, black, sludge or stoner metal - there is even a throbbing bassline section in opener Katarakt that could be construed as post-punk. Stoner-black... Atmo-death anyone? Fucked if I know! It is however another stand-out offering from a band who don't have any desire to follow any current trend in metal but who are following their own path and have developed a singular sound and good luck to them for that.

Very strong 4/5

I thought I would resurrect this thread to catalogue my attempt on the remainder of The Horde's Death Metal - The 1st Decade clan challenge. I'll be going through the list in chronological order so it remains in keeping with the thread's original intention of travelling through the timeline of death metal's early development. If there are any albums you feel I absolutely must hear in order to keep expanding my death metal education from 1990-94 then by all means post them here and I will check them out. I don't intend for this to be as exhaustive as it started out, as I say it is more to chart my tackling of the clan challenge, but I am not averse to a few more albums to listen to along the way.

Anyway, next up:

Obituary - Cause of Death (1990)

Obituary's debut Slowly We Rot was an exceedingly solid slab of death metal and was a decent calling card for the Floridians. However, the improvement from that album to Cause of Death is marked. With this Obituary made their most significant contribution to the development of death metal and in so doing laid down a stone-cold classic.

Cause of Death retained the things that the debut did well - John Tardy's vocals remained equally as evil-sounding and depraved and the guitar tone that dominated Slowly We Rot, derived as it so obviously is from Celtic Frost's classic sound, was honed to virtually the perfect death metal guitar sound that, for me, defined what OSDM riffs should sound like. On top of those good things from SWR, this time round Obituary upped their songwriting skills and the tracks on Cause of Death are far more memorable than those found on the debut, Body Bag and the title track, for example I find still rolling round my head long after the disc stops spinning. There aren't as many doomy, slow sections, but when the pace drops, I would say they are better done and are more effective for their sparseness. The most obvious upgrade from Slowly We Rot is the addition of transformative lead guitarist James Murphy whose contributions here, similarly to those he made on Death's Spiritual Healing from the same year, made an enormous difference, his solos being far more skillfully executed and interesting than those of his predecessor, Allen West. I don't think the improvements his involvement entailed can be underestimated as he is obviously an exceptionally gifted axeman and he managed to bring the soloing style of classic heavy metal gods like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest into the gnarly and foetid world of death metal without it sanitising the filthiness of the band's death metal sound but instead celebrating and bestowing it with a classiness it previously lacked. Drummer Donald Tardy also seemed to have upped his game and the addition of new bassist Frank Watkins solidified the rhythm section and they seem more on point with the pacier material of Cause of Death.

Once more, however, the band were determined to include a Celtic Frost cover and even though their version of Circle of the Tyrants is actually pretty awesome, it seems kind of redundant when you think that the band were one of the pioneers of a newer, more brutal style of metal, so why did they feel the need to reference back to earlier material that they had usurped and superceded? This is the only negative I can think of with regard to Cause of Death though and even that is kind of half-hearted because, as I said, the cover is actually excellent. I've not heard a lot of Obituary after this release, but consensus seems to be that they were never this good again, but to have been this good even once is an achievement not to be sniffed at.

5/5

Daniel & Vinny, thanks, your suggestions have been added to the list.

Could you add Hexer's latest, Abyssal, please Ben.

So, inspired by Vinny's assault on The Fallen, I have got my arse in gear and decided to continue my attempt to complete The Horde's Death Metal - The 1st Decade clan challenge and secure myself that coveted fourth clan (after only four years on the site!) So here we go:

Obituary - Cause of Death (1990)

Obituary's debut Slowly We Rot was an exceedingly solid slab of death metal and was a decent calling card for the Floridians. However, the improvement from that album to Cause of Death is marked. With this Obituary made their most significant contribution to the development of death metal and in so doing laid down a stone-cold classic.

Cause of Death retained the things that the debut did well - John Tardy's vocals remained equally as evil-sounding and depraved and the guitar tone that dominated Slowly We Rot, derived as it so obviously is from Celtic Frost's classic sound, was honed to virtually the perfect death metal guitar sound that, for me, defined what OSDM riffs should sound like. On top of those good things from SWR, this time round Obituary upped their songwriting skills and the tracks on Cause of Death are far more memorable than those found on the debut, Body Bag and the title track, for example I find still rolling round my head long after the disc stops spinning. There aren't as many doomy, slow sections, but when the pace drops, I would say they are better done and are more effective for their sparseness. The most obvious upgrade from Slowly We Rot is the addition of transformative lead guitarist James Murphy whose contributions here, similarly to those he made on Death's Spiritual Healing from the same year, made an enormous difference, his solos being far more skillfully executed and interesting than those of his predecessor, Allen West. I don't think the improvements his involvement entailed can be underestimated as he is obviously an exceptionally gifted axeman and he managed to bring the soloing style of classic heavy metal gods like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest into the gnarly and foetid world of death metal without it sanitising the filthiness of the band's death metal sound but instead celebrating and bestowing it with a classiness it previously lacked. Drummer Donald Tardy also seemed to have upped his game and the addition of new bassist Frank Watkins solidified the rhythm section and they seem more on point with the pacier material of Cause of Death.

Once more, however, the band were determined to include a Celtic Frost cover and even though their version of Circle of the Tyrants is actually pretty awesome, it seems kind of redundant when you think that the band were one of the pioneers of a newer, more brutal style of metal, so why did they feel the need to reference back to earlier material that they had usurped and superceded? This is the only negative I can think of with regard to Cause of Death though and even that is kind of half-hearted because, as I said, the cover is actually excellent. I've not heard a lot of Obituary after this release, but consensus seems to be that they were never this good again, but to have been this good even once is an achievement not to be sniffed at.

5/5

In common with genre trailblazers Blasphemy, Conqueror were a British Columbia war metal band, forming in 1994 and splitting in 2000. War Cult Supremacy is their only full album and was released in 1999. I know most people, including a significant number of black metal fans, don't enjoy war metal and, in all honesty I get that. However, to me, an album like War Cult Supremacy reaches back down into the brutal and bestial roots of Man and can be utilised as a kind of primal scream therapy. War metal is chaotic and thundering, it is relentlessy brutal-sounding and it is unforgiving. It speaks back to the days when men ate what they could kill and they had to kill what threatened them to survive. War metal isn't intended to speak to the modern, reasoning man in all of us, but rather to our primitive nature, red in blood and claw.

This Canadian duo have that primal primitivism down to a tee, with their chaotic blend of death and black metal that does little except pummel away relentlessly at your ears and mind with little regard for tunefullness, song structure or technical mastery. The drums batter away relentlesly in what seems like a permanent blastbeat, hugely distorted riffs fire off in all directions, guitar leads are virtually non-existent and J. Read spits out the lyrics in a flurry of incoherent fury. The production values are very low, not unusually for 1990's war metal, which adds to the chaotic nature of the album as any detail or subtlety just disappears into the tempest of speed and distortion. There are actually some good songs buried under these layers of visceral chaos and brutality, The Curse, for example is an energetic maelstrom with a throbbing central riff and the title track is a blitz of black metal bombardment that fans of late 90's Marduk would recognise easily if it was slowed down a bit and the production values were higher.

War Cult Supremacy is an album that is meant to engage the listener on a gut level, not on a cerebral one. For proof look no further than the lyrics to Chaos Domination (Conquer the Enslaver) - "Chaos domination conquers the enslaver, The new order of the Conqueror is here, The absolute laws of nature replace the deficient laws of humanity". Not that the lyrics are a big part of what War Cult Supremacy is about as they are all but indecipherable, but they do illustrate the philosophy behind the music. Even the anti-christian stuff, I think, is more about man's laws being stripped away and replaced by the chaos of war and conquest.

Some may say that I am full of shit and this is just a couple of guys who can't really play very well making a damn racket and hey, maybe you're right, but when I listen to this it sweeps away all the unconscionable bullshit I have filled my head with during the day and replaces it with a mad, chaotic joy just for being alive - and that is no mean feat my friends!

4.5/5

Kowloon Walled City - Gambling on the Richter Scale (2009)

This is an interesting slab of sludge metal that the review draft has thrown up this month. Gambling on the Richter Scale is pretty damn heavy and has a bottom end that, if played too loudly, may leave you homeless if your house isn't up to code. What it isn't though, is an indistinguishable morass of distortion-laden fuzz. Sure, it utilises distortion to great effect, but the recording is so clear that all the ingredients are sharply defined. The rhythm section of bassist Ian Miller and drummer Jeff Fagundes particularly benefit from this aspect of the production. The bass shines through and even dominates proceedings at times, providing a super-solid foundation for the guitar riffs to be built on. The drumwork is brilliant, being perfectly positioned in the mix and with plenty of interesting fills, Fagundes especially shining on Bone Loss where the more complex drumming patterns contrast really effectively with the quite basic riffing. The guitar work is essentially quite straitforward, but the riffs are as thick as you would hope for and being bolstered by the bass, they are ridiculously heavy. There isn't a huge amount of lead work, but what there is is handled well and layered over the heaviness of the riffing it hits like razorblades set in concrete.

Guitarist Scott Evans also handles vocal duties and has a decent hardcore punk bawl that sounds more derived from the NYHC scene than San Francisco. Lyrically this is as bleak and unflinching as anything by Eyehategod or other sludge legends - Diabetic Feet for example speaks of living with amputation due to ignorance of the effects of treatable disease and several other tracks deal with the erosion of self due and daily grind caused by poverty and endless back-breaking and soul-destroying labour. There is no hope or redemption to be found anywhere within Kowloon Walled City's lyrics as they are desperately try to force you to blink or look away.

In summation, this is actually a bit of a hidden gem of the sludge world and deserves more recognition than it has so far received. KWC have released an additional three albums to date and I am looking forward to checking them out - another win for the review draft!

(A very strong) 4/5

The easy answer would be Bathory, but I am going to take the Zarathustra album as I have never heard of them before.

Over to you, Vinny.

Brilliant, I love this record and have it on CD. It is a Rich Walker side project of Solstice with Twisted Tower Dire's Tony Taylor on vocals, so it is EPIC, as you would expect. I've never written up a review so cheers for nominating it, Daniel and motivating me to do so!

I'll try my luck with Steak Number Eight, despite the stupid name.

Not fancy Phyllomedusa after spending all that time adding them, Ben?

I'll take the Fog of War album. An album with a cover that bad has got to be great, right guys? ....guys?

Over to you Vinny.

I will take the Kowloon Walled City album, Ben.

Way to go Andi. It seems like you have enjoyed a lot of classic thrash a bit more than you thought you would - certainly more than I thought you would!

March 2023

1. Black Oath - "Behold the Abyss" from "Behold the Abyss" (2018) [suggested by Sonny]

2. Eyehategod - "My Name Is God (I Hate You)" from "Dopesick (1996) [suggested by Sonny]

3. Ufomammut - "Ammonia" from "Idolum" (2008) [suggested by Ben]

4. Death SS - "Chains of Death - 1982" from "The Story of Death SS : 1977-1984" (1987) [suggested by Daniel]

5. Monolord - "Larvae" from "No Comfort" (2019) [suggested by Vinny]

6. Tribulation - "In Remembrance" from "Where the Gloom Becomes Sound" (2021)

7. Oozing Wound - "Total Existence Anxiety" from "We Cater to Cowards" (2023)

8. Black Lodge - "Dissonance" from "Covet" (1995)

9. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - "Big Rig" from "Land of Sleeper" (2023)

10. Chat Pile - "Slaughterhouse" from "God's Country" (2022) [suggested by Daniel]

11. Crawl - "Poisoned and Shadowmad" from "Damned" (2023)

12. Inter Arma - "'sblood" from "Sky Burial" (2013)

13. Electric Wizard - "Funeralopolis" from "Dopethrone" (2000)

14. The Otolith - "Ekpyrotic" from "Folium Limina" (2022) [suggested by Daniel]

15. Colosseum - "Passage to Eternity" from "Chapter 3: Parasomnia" (2011) [suggested by Ben]

Holy Moses - Master of Disaster (2001)

I was quite familiar with the Germans' first two full-lengths, but didn't follow their career any further than that. There was a massive upturn in quality from the debut, Queen of Siam to the sophomore, so I was interested to hear what trajectory their career had taken from the latter's release in 1987 to this in 2001. Master of Disaster is a five-track EP and clocks in at seventeen minutes, it consists of fairly savage crossover-ish thrash that isn't actually too far removed from what we heard on Finished With the Dogs. However, it doesn't possess the '87 full-length's rawness and so lacks a lot of the charisma that album manages to exude. Singer Sabina has a harsh, ragged line in punk-ish shrieking vocals that here sound much more forced and overdone than they did on FWtD and so are diminished to my ears - I don't know whether the emergence of others like Angela Gossow affected her vocal delivery, but it just seems like she is trying too hard. The riffs are meaty and musically the band sound very tight, but very little actually stands out and grabs you. It's not bad and at 17 minutes it doesn't last long enough to irritate, but I was kind of hoping that the decade and a half since Finished With the Dogs might have produced something more impressive.

3/5

I went through my first The Fallen playlist this month.  My takeaway picks were The Hounds of Hasselvander, Fvneral Fvck, Mansion, Ahab and The Howling Void.  I didn't mind Admiral Angry either but I have never understood the hype around Orange Goblin and this tack didn't change my mind either.  Some cool takeaways to explore in more detail though.  Thanks Sonny.

It's great that you enjoyed Mansion, Ahab and Howling Void Vinny as they are 2023 releases and it feels like The Fallen may be in for a good year new music-wise. Fvneral Fvck were a new one on me too that I discovered while compiling the list and really dug a lot.

Well, it was going really well up to Overkill's The One, but after that it went a bit Pete Tong for me. I'm not a big fan of groove metal and most things that sound like Pantera get up my nose, so there were a few tracks in the middle section that didn't do it for me - Lazarus A.D., Mnemic and, unsurprisingly, Babymetal didn't impress (although I resisted the temptation to FF which was quite an effort with a couple of them). Zimmers Hole's “When You Were Shouting at the Devil…We Were in League with Satan” did make me raise a chuckle though and is an absolutely brilliant title.

Things got back on track with Autoneosis and although I wasn't a massive fan of the album, here on the playlist it works. The one-two punch of Deviated Instinct and Hellshock was a playlist highlight for me and though I wasn't massively taken with the Feared track, the three closers gave the playlist a terrific, powerful climax.

I must admit, I'm starting to wonder of The Pit still holds the attraction for me that it used to. However, I just can't imagine giving up the clan that holds Reign In Blood, Master of Puppets, Among the Living and so many other albums that were fundamental to the expansion of my metal taste in the eighties. Just have to take the rough with the smooth I suppose. Anyway, great work Vinny and I did hear some stuff I need to look into further - Slaughter Messiah and Hellshock in particular.

Well, The Ending Quest must be a specially kept secret of the death metal cognoscenti, because this sole full-length from Sweden's Gorement is an absolute classic of nineties death doom and it's various ingredients are like sonic vitamins that ensure the listener's mind and ears will grow strong enough to withstand the onslaught of extreme metal, yet I have never even heard of it before which is a shame because this is most definitely up my particular strasse and I am super-stoked to finally have made it's acquaintance, so thanks Daniel for nominating it. On reflection it is unfortunate that I dropped out of metal circles in the nineties because there was no end of underground-ish shit coming out that I would have lapped up if life had been a little kinder and this is absolutely one of those. It is an absolutely filthy-sounding record with some authentic sloppiness to the playing that reminds us we are listening to human beings and not machines which I always find far more endearing than absolute precision.

I agree that this feels more like a genuine death doom hybrid rather than a "death metal album with slow bits" from the likes of Autopsy and early Asphyx, rather it is more of a "death doom album with fast bits". They successfully combine the brutality of that Autopsy-like death metal with some really quite catchy doom-like melodies, but the primitive production never makes it actually feel that catchy, until you find yourself humming along to it that is!

Vocalist Jimmy Karlsson has a great line in sounding like an extremely irritated abyssal demon and the riffs are absolutely dripping with effluvium which is precisely the flavour I love in death doom metal and I will take it over that poncy, gothic-flavoured stuff any day. I joke of course and, in fact, there are times when this feels heavily influenced by Paradise Lost, such as on the excellent (but possibly too short) Silent Hymn (For the Dead). I know I am no death metal (or musical) expert and the genre has thrown out loads of precision-driven and technical masterpieces and I enjoy many of them, but this filthier, more primitive-sounding version of death metal is where I feel most comfortable and which fulfills something inside me that the more modern stuff doesn't touch.

Now I need to get my hands on one of those re-release copies. [Edit] Yay, Amazon have got if for £15, so should be arriving tomorrow!

4.5/5

I will go with just one addition please Sonny (thanks again for letting me get in on the action this month).  I will go with:

Monolord - "Larvae" (from "No Comfort", 2019)

No problem Vinny. It will be added.

I would suggest that we reduce our limit for The Fallen track nominations to 24 minutes each from next month Sonny.

Agreed. Let us go with that then going forward.

Svartidauði's is a name I have seen banded about occasionally, yet I haven't taken the plunge with them before, so other than the fact that they are Icelandic and the preconceptions that come with that, then I didn't really know what to expect. Well, for a quick summation, Revelations of the Red Sword takes the best of Deathspell Omega and Blut aus Nord and forge them into an energetic and invigorating black metal maelstrom. It has the edge that dissonance provides, yet it doesn't alienate a more conservative listener like myself by being overbearingly so, but rather it weaves a jagged wall of sound from the disparate threads of dissonance around the framework provided by the pummelling drum battery. And those drums are something to behold - Magnús Skúlason deserves much praise indeed for his constantly shifting, complex and technically superb skinwork that underpins the entire endeavour.

Further praise must go to vocalist/bassist Sturla Viðar Jakobsson whose basswork is great, but his vocals are even more so, sounding more like the howling roar of a wounded beast than the piercing shrieks more usually associated with black metal. The lead guitar work sounds exceedingly complicated and really does feel like guitarist Þórir Garðarsson is weaving disparate strands of sound from the ether and  providing a direct line of communication through to another dimension of reality.

I have found myself becoming irritated at times over recent years by the seemingly endless flow of black metal albums trading in dissonance, but what has come to me like the revelation of the title whilst listening to Revelations of the Red Sword is that what is really annoying me is that too many bands are treading the dissonance path without the necessary skill to do it effectively and so just sound, well, a bit shit. Svartidauði, however are the real deal and this is one killer of a black metal album and many thanks to Vinny for nominating it for this month's feature.

4.5/5

I intend finishing the March Fallen Playlist on Friday or over the weekend, so if you want to suggest a track or two up to, say 20 minutes total duration, Vinny, then that's great. Just let me have any suggestions by Thursday evening and we should be OK. Of course if you don't wish to then that is fine too.

I just noticed that yourself, Daniel and I all have the same 4 clans. If Sonny were to add a fourth clan, I wouldn't be surprised if he joined us.

I guess it's not surprising, given they're generally the four most extreme clans.

Yes, Ben, you are right. I have been meaning to reopen my assault on the Horde's Death Metal: The First Decade clan challenge, but I just haven't been able to squeeze it in yet with the feature releases, draft reviews, playlist compilation and a project I am doing on RYM. But I intend to start soon and hope, ultimately, to join you guys in The Horde.

Zemial - In Monumentum (2006)

I was virtually unaware of Zemial prior to this, other than seeing the name occasionally. Quick research shows them to be a one-man outfit from Athens, or maybe not, it's hard to tell. The main man is multi-instrumentalist Archon Vorskaath, who seems over the years to have involved a number of others in the project, including his brother, Eskarth the Dark One. The brothers are also sole members of melodic black metal act, Agatus and look to have moved around a fair bit, moving from their native Athens to Adelaide, then to Germany, back to Athens and now the UK! Coincidentally, Archon Vorskaath was also guitarist with fellow February Draft nominees Varathron for a time.

Despite forming in 1989, 2006's In Monumentum is actually Zemial's debut full-length, although they had put out a number of EPs in the preceeding years. It consists of medium-paced thrash with blackened vocals in the main, that is kind-of familiar within Greek black metal circles, but which never really grabbed or particularly convinced me. The production is kind of muted and the addition of occasional keyoards just seems to muddy things up even more, but most importantly the tracks seem to lack fire and feel terribly pedestrian to my ears. I like to hear black metal bands sound like they mean it, whether they are spewing vitriol at organised religion or praising the majesty of the natural world, but this feels like it lacks passion and dynamism.

My favourite track here is the closer, In Monumentum / Stone of the Ages, which isn't black metal at all, but is an epic, almost progressive, heavy metal track with clean vocals and here the band feel more interested in the material than in the previous half-an-hour's blackened thrash - and therein lies the issue with the album for me.

Not terrible, but an unconvinced 3/5 for me.

All hail to brother Vinny - a much heralded addition to the ranks of The Fallen!

Black Oath - Behold the Abyss (2018)

I had actually forgotten that I do have some previous history with Black Oath, having checked out their debut when it came out, back in 2011, and awarding it 4 out of 5 stars, so I must have found it to be pretty decent. The fact I couldn't remember it didn't bode well going into this review of their fourth album, Behold the Abyss, but I did my due diligence and revisited it with a real positive result as it is indeed a cracking slab of trad doom that any fan of said genre should dig. The years intevening between the debut and Behold the Abyss have seen their sound become more epic and here it sits somewhere between the out-and-out doom of Pallbearer and Monolord and the epic doom of, say, Solstice and Krux, with the inclusion of faster-paced sections and an increased number of guitar solos. On fourth track, Once Death Sang, they even introduce clean female vocals, in the vein of Shape of Despair et al, as provided by guest Elizabetta M, to even greater increase the epic atmosphere.

The album sounds great, with a real clarity that suits this more epic sound, the riffs boom out of the speakers and the solos sear through the listeners ear 'oles, while both bass and drums are functional without being overly showy, yet are suitably positioned in the mix and are clearly audible. Vocalist and bassist/guitarist, E.A. Zorath, whilst no Messiah Marcolin or Morris Ingram, possesses a voice that suits the material quite well and thankfully never resorts to embarrasing histrionics. The songs are well constructed and, whilst playing it quite safe within the doom/epic doom template, they come up with some terrific riffs and nice melodies - in fact tracks like Chants of Aradia and Lilith Black Moon are fairly catchy affairs.

Look, this is no envelope pusher, but if you dig on solid and satisfying epic doom fare, then you will be well served by Behold the Abyss. Also, it has reminded me of the debut's existence, which I have now boosted another half star, and which I personally prefer, but don't take my word for it, try them both out and see!

4/5

An exploration of The Pit without early Metallica, Slayer or Kreator seems somehow... incomplete, Andi!

My original review for A Pyrrhic Existence didn't really do it justice, so I have produced  a new one for this month's feature:

From the earliest days of the NWOBHM, through the 1980's thrash boom, the end of that decade's transition from thrash to death metal and into the nineties' black metal explosion, via bands like Venom, Slayer, Possessed, Morbid Angel and Darkthrone, metal had endeavoured to become more and more extreme by constantly striving to be faster and heavier (and more evil-sounding) than all that had gone before. Yet in the very early 1990's a small number of visionary metal bands, notably Switzerland's Mordor and Finland's Thergothon realised that true extremity lay in slowing things down to a snail's pace, utilising huge, crushing chords that seemed to last aeons, employing vocalists who barely registered on the human vocal scale and placing huge emphasis on repetition and a funeral-like atmosphere. One of the first funeral doom acts to form in the wake of demos from Thergothon and Mordor and to completely embrace the funeral doom aesthetic were Birmingham's Esoteric. That was back in 1992 and it is a testament to the band's quality that they still sit at the apex of the genre thirty years later.

I would have to peg Esoteric as one of my top five metal bands of all time. They are one of those metal acts who just refuse to compromise. When I say this, I don't mean to say that their sound hasn't evolved, but rather that, despite fundamentally playing funeral doom for the entirety of their thirty year career, unlike other long- established bands who started out playing this most mournful of metal genres, they haven't forsaken the style completely by moving in an entirely different direction. Over recent years they have certainly incorporated elements of post-metal into their sound and they have always been a more than a mere funeral doom band, but they are still unashamedly committed to the genre and their commitment to it has made them, arguably (well, for me, inarguably), the premier exponents of the style.

Having released only seven full-lengths in their thirty years, aptly for a funeral doom act, they are not a band to be hurried and A Pyrrhic Existence was their first new release in eight years, as Greg Chandler had been concentrating on his avant-garde black metal project, Lychgate, so anticipation for the album was high. Of course, Esoteric didn't disappoint and if they never release another album then A Pyrrhic Existence will stand as a fitting swansong for the UK's best extreme doom metal act.

A Pyrrhic Existence, in common with several of the band's previous full-lengths, is a long album, although at 98 minutes it's about an hour shorter than your average Marvel Universe movie and is a million times more rewarding (although it does have less throw-away one-liners and spandex, that much is true)! It is an album that is heavily predicated on atmosphere. To this end, Esoteric also incorporate elements of post-metal into their sound that fans of Cult of Luna or Neurosis may instantly feel at home with and that, along with the lightness and airiness of the lead guitar work, when combined with the immense, seismic chords and Greg Chandler's harrowing vocals, presents a huge contrast of light and dark that sits at the heart of what A Pyrrhic Existence is about. Opening track, Descent, is one of my favourite metal tracks of all-time and delivers an unrivalled atmosphere to match it's title, as it genuinely feels in places as if the listener is falling earthward as if from a great height, which kind of epitomises the light/heavy dichotomy into a truly compelling atmosphere. I have rarely felt so utterly consumed by a track as I do every time I listen to this modern metal classic, a track that is genuinely breathtaking (almost literally, not merely metaphorically).

Greg Chandler's vocals really are something to behold. He alternates between a deep growling that sounds like boulders splitting under the pressure from some huge subterranean force and a ragged shriek born of black metal, the overall effect of which sounds like some sort of primal demon that has been possessed by another, even more deranged, demon. For my money Chandler is one of the very finest extreme metal vocalists and for him to still be able to produce such an extreme vocal performance after so long in the game is impressive. This is also a ridiculously heavy album, even though it has those contrasting lighter sections, it is still crushing when it needs to be. There are occasional daliiances with chugging death doom riffs and in the middle of the track Culmination they employ a riff that sounds like they took the intro to Am I Evil?, brutalised it, then supercharged it and made it their own. Drums have (often justifiably) gained a reputation of monotony in funeral doom, but the performance of drummer Joe Fletcher is powerful and precise and is another element that elevates A Pyrrhic Existence above it's peers.

For me this is the epitome of modern extreme metal, particularly from the viewpoint of an old doomhead, but as with any extreme form of metal, it doesn't provide an instant high and it certainly isn't for everyone, but it is one of those sublime albums in which it is possible to lose oneself and especially using headphones it is like I imagine it would be to be immersed in a sensory deprivation chamber. For those open to it's charms, this is likely to be a thoroughly rewarding experience if you have the patience.

5/5

Hi Vinny. My suggestions for the March playlist:

The Accüsed - "Distractions" from "Oh Martha!" (2005) 

Anthrax - "Time" from "Persistence of Time" (1990) 

Bulldozer - "Fallen Angel" from "The Day of Wrath" (1985) 

Exhorder - "Legions of Death" from "Slaughter in the Vatican" (1990) 

Hellish - "Black Stones" from "The Dance of the Four Elemental Serpents" (2022) 

Thanks Ben. Nice choices!

Ben, are you going to be submitting any suggestions this month?

Good luck Daniel. Rather you than me!

As I stated in my review, I found the vocals to be the most compelling ingredient of the album. I enjoyed it most when it was at it's least thrashy because I just don't think it works at all well as a thrash album. Interesting exactly how divisive a release it has turned out to be though. Just goes to show that even if two people agree that a release works (or not), it can be for completely different reasons, proving that in music everything is subjective.

Hi Ben, my submissions for the March playlist are:

Ovnev - "Oracles of the Eternal Wisdom" from "Incalescence" (2017)
Imperium Dekadenz - "Truth Under Stars" from "Into Sorrow Evermore" (2023)
Gloosh - "Swampsong" from "Sylvan Coven" (2021)

I haven't paid much attention to Anacrusis over the years and so I wasn't quite sure what I would be getting with Screams and Whispers. Well one thing I did get was an interesting listen that's for sure. This is definitely not one of those thrash albums that jumps out and grabs you by the throat, but it requires a degree of investment on the part of the listener in order to unpack and digest what is going on here. Thrash metal can often be a very immediate experience, but a single, or even a couple of listens would never do an album like this justice. It is true that by the time of Screams and Whispers release there were several bands trying to move thrash metal on into a more progressive or technical direction, with varying degrees of success and it's fair to include Anacrusis amongst their number.

One thing that did stand out immediately were Kenn Nardi's vocals which don't come on like most other thrash vocalists who try terribly hard to sound as aggressive as possible, although he certainly shows at times he is capable of vocal aggression, it is not his only recourse. There is a gothic tinge to his vocals and even, I might venture, a touch of grunge about his singing. Most often, he comes off as a cross between Suicidal Tendencies' Mike Muir and Killing Joke's Jaz Coleman, although he can let rip when the material requires it.

Musically Screams and Whispers is a real mixed bag and to call it simply a thrash album is not telling the whole story. I guess progressive metal may cover it, but there really is a shedload of different influences going on here and from track to track, like with Forrest Gump's proverbial box of chocolates, you're never quite sure what you're going to get. Anacrusis seem to take delight in catching their listeners off-guard with a succession of curveballs, whether it's a gothic metal-like track such as the opener, Sound the Alarm (probably my favourite track), or the accessible melodies of tracks like Release that are exceedingly catchy in places, to the keyboard flourishes that sound like they were rented from Yes' Owner of A Lonely Heart that rear their heads on more than a couple of occasions, and the Killing Joke-influenced Division, this is certainly an unpredictable thrash metal release.

But, does it work? Well, I am a man of simple tastes and it could be that this is just too cosmopolitan for me but, no I'm afraid it doesn't always work and on a few occasions the constant change of direction hints at a work that doesn't really know what it wants to be, other than different from the herd. The constant and sudden changes of direction I often found frustrating and a little bit irritating, with it ultimately residing slightly outside my enjoyment zone. Don't get me wrong, there are tracks I enjoyed, the aforementioned Sound the Alarm and Division for example, but for me it isn't sufficiently coherent and those constant curveballs ended up distracting more than engaging me. What does make this album for me and are what I will take away from it are Nardi's vocals which lift the album higher in my regard than I think it would have with an inferior singer, so although I found the whole a bit disappointing, the vocals made it a worthwhile experience nonetheless.
3.5/5

Over recent months I have been neglecting both the Metal Academy monthly playlists and black metal generally, so this afternoon the weather was kind enough to allow me to spend an afternoon in the garden carrying out some much-needed maintenance and thus providing an excellent opportunity to check out this month's playlist for the North. First off, bang-up job Ben, I really enjoyed it and I think it has helped restoke my black metal fire! I was never once tempted to hit the skip button and considering the list contained both Summoning and Gnaw Their Tongues, that is saying something, although both tracks were interesting enough and count as better ones from those two acts, at least for me anyway.

The Drudkh and Leviathan tracks nailed it for me (unsurprisingly as they were both my suggestions in the first place) and the new Thy Darkened Shade track is excellent - as is the album. I quite enjoyed the Deafheaven track which seemed more aggressive than I remember them being and both Vinny's suggestions of Barshasketh and Svartidaudi, along with Nocte Obducta (who I have never heard of before) really piqued my interest. 

I have been looking forward to checking out the Hoplites album, with the track here adding to that anticipation and I am a big fan of Melechesh, so a track from Epigenesis will always be welcome. The only real disappointment was the Satanic Warmaster track - it's ok, but not on the same level as their previous album (from all of eight years prior).

Nice work, Ben and much appreciated. Hopefully I will now be able to keep up with the playlists a bit more going forward.

It was a comparitively quiet year for new releases for me last year as I only rated 61 of the hundreds released in 2022 that were added to Metal Academy (I have been averaging a couple of hundred in the previous few years). I don't know if it is because of this or not, but I didn't consider last year a "great" year for metal - solid, but not great. Funnily this year already seems to be shaping up better from my point of view, with some really great releases already. There is, however, still a long way to go so it remains to be seen if this time next year we are lauding 2023 as a classic year for metal!

Anyway, my top releases for '22:

1. Dvvell - "Quiescent"

2. Messa - "Close"

3. Monolithe - "Kosmodrom"

4. Epitaphe "II"

5. Deathspell Omega - "The Long Defeat"

6. The Otolith - "Folium Limina"

7. Mournful Congregation - "The Exuviae of Gods: Part I"

8. Shape of Despair - "Return to the Void"

9. Satan - "Earth Infernal"

10. Russian Circles - "Gnosis"

11. The Funeral Orchestra - "Funeral Death - Apocalyptic Plague Ritual II"

12. Critical Defiance - "No Life Forms"

13. Conan - "Evidence of Immortality"

14. Blut aus Nord - "Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses"

15. BlackLab - "In a Bizarre Dream"

Dvvell definitely gets a thumbs-up from me as Fallen AOTY. It was one of only two to get full marks from me last year, the other being Messa's Close and while that is a brilliant album, it didn't make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck like Quiescent did.

Apparently the only Gateway release I rated last year was by Thornhill and it only got a couple of stars (and I can't remember anything about it now), so, obviously, The Gateway is not really a clan I care that much about.

Surprisingly, for me, I actually didn't mind The God Machine. It was as decent a power metal album as I have heard in ages, so I can get behind that win, although for me, Satan's Earth Infernal was the best album from under The Guardians' umbrella last year.

Only four Horde releases from last year rated - I thought it would be more - and Immolation's Acts of God was my pick with Desolate Shrine's Fires of the Dying World coming in a close second. I haven't heard the winner.

I understand why Cult of Luna won the award for The Infinite as they are indeed a class act, but my winner in the clan would have to be an album I must thank Vinny for putting me onto - Russian Circles' Gnosis.

I'm a bit surprised that Blut aus Nord took the North crown, even though I enjoyed it myself, as it doesn't seem to have received a lot of praise here on Metal Academy. My personal favourite was DsO's latestThe Long Defeat, with Hate Forest a close second.

I have neglected The Pit recently with only three 2022 releases rated from that clan, but my easy winner, in common with everyone else it seems, was Critical Defiance's No Life Forms.

Unsurprisingly for me, considering my loathing of -core genres I rated no Revolution releases from 2022, so have no opinion.

I only rated one Sphere release from 2022, but luckily it was the winner, which was a damn fine album and deserved it's win.

Ghost - "Meliora" (2015)

Yep, I know what you're thinking. Isn't this album a hard rock/heavy metal record? Well sites like RYM would certainly have you believe so but that's more of a reflection on the RYM audience than it is the reality because I can assure you that this is a progressive metal/progressive rock hybrid. There isn't a genuine hard rock song on the tracklisting & there's really only one heavy metal tune too. I'd actually never heard a Ghost album before now but this one isn't too bad at all. Sure, it's a very lightweight & accessible version of metal but the riffs are definitely there & there are some pretty decent hooks in there too. I think I can dig this shit actually. It's conceptually quite an ambitious record & is really well executed. The unintimidating vocal delivery strangely possesses a noticeably American twang & I'd probably prefer something a little dirtier but I can see why Ghost appeal to so many people, even if they're probably a little too user-friendly for this particular metalhead.

3.5/5

I must admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for Ghost's debut album, Opus Eponymous. Sure, it's quite lightweight, occult-flavoured rock, but it has some real ear-worms on it and, let's face it, not everything has to be super-earnest and earth-shatteringly heavy does it? Oddly though, I hated the follow-up, Infestissumam - go figure!

Ahab - The Coral Tombs (2023)

Released 13th January on Napalm Records

German doom metal titans Ahab are back with their fifth full-length, eight years since previous album, The Boats of the Glen Carrig, hit the shelves. In common with all their previous releases, The Coral Tombs is a concept album based on a nautical-themed literary source. This time the aquatic source material is Jules Verne's classic science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. Ever since their debut, The Call of the Wretched Sea, with each successive release Ahab have been steadily moving further away from their funeral doom beginnings and on The Coral Tombs, as with Glen Carrig, the band have adopted more of a straight-up doom metal sound similar to the likes of Monolord and Pallbearer, although the real touchstone here is Warning's classic Watching From A Distance, with both Daniel Droste's vocal and guitar phrasing sounding heavily influenced by Patrick Walker on that all-time classic - and anyone who knows anything about my musical preference knows that that will instantly grab my attention!

This doesn't mean that Ahab have abandoned extreme doom metal completely of course and there are several well-placed death doom moments when Droste's guttering growls replace his melancholy cleans and the riffs start their deathly chugging, though usually they are used now as a counterpoint to the mournful sadness of the cleaner sections, such as on Colossus of the Liquid Graves. During a track like this Ahab strike me as a death doom Opeth with the band sounding like they also want to push their progressive credentials a bit. I think Opeth is a fair comparison as I always considered the Swede's to be technically one of the best bands in their field and I think the same is true of Ahab, their instrumental skills and songwriting ability seem to be well in the upper echelons of the doom metal fratenity.

Over the course of their five albums Ahab have done a sterling job of capturing the feeling of being adrift on (or under in this case) the vast and uncompromising oceans of the world, with a loneliness and lack of control over one's destiny that is tangible within the notes of the band's music. This adroitness in so successfully creating such an oppressive, and yet at the same time beautiful, atmosphere is the mark of fantastic songwriters. There are times during The Coral Tombs when you can just picture the Nautilus sailing over breathtaking subterranean vistas, it's crew utterly entranced by the strange beauty of the previously unwitnessed ocean depths, so successfully do the band create these narrative pictures. One of the standout tracks for me is The Sea as a Desert where the band still exhibit some of their funeral doom tendencies, but ally this with a soul-wrenching mournfulness when Droste's cleans sound most like Patrick Walker and make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck!

There are a couple of guest vocal appearances on the opening and closing tracks - Chris Dark of Ultha adds his black metal shrieks to Droste's gutteral utterings on the explosive opening moments of Prof. Arronax' Descent Into the Vast Oceans (which then actually slows to a much more sedate and gentler atmosphere) and Esoteric's Greg Chandler helps out on The Mælstrom with his trademark growls. Neither guest slot is gratuitous and both bring something that Droste obviously felt he couldn't manage alone, but that the music required. So yet again Ahab prove that they are a top-drawer doom metal act, not restricting themselves, but rather drawing on several of it's sub-genres to enable a more expansive and rewarding experience for the listener whilst still presenting an unarguably doom metal release that is both haunting and crushing.

4.5/5

Ah, that will explain it. I will update using my tablet in future as that has the app on it.

I really loved Holy Moses' 1987 album, Finished With the Dogs, but I never followed up by listening to anything they put out later, so I would be interested to hear how they sounded in 2001. So Holy Moses' Master of Disaster is my pick.

Will anyone be brave enough to pick the Gnaw Their Tongues album!?

Sorry Ben, but not me. I am going to go with the Zemial album thanks.

Over to you Vinny...

Daniel, "Hubris" by The Otolith was actually featured on the January playlist. Do you want to make another selection?

February 2023

1. The Hounds of Hasselvander - "The Ninth Hour" from "The Ninth Hour" (2011)

2. Black Tomb - "Turning Worm" from "Black Tomb" (2016) [submitted by Sonny]

3. Fvneral Fvkk - "Chapel of Abuse" from "Carnal Confessions" (2019)

4. Mansion - "You Are Suspicious (Extended Version)" from "You Are Suspicious (Extended Version)" (2023) [submitted by Sonny]

5. Orange Goblin - "Snail Hook" from "Time Travelling Blues" (1998)

6. Ahab - "Colossus of the Liquid Graves" from "The Coral Tombs" (2023)

7. Admiral Angry - "The Illusion of Strength" from "Buster" (2009) [submitted by Daniel]

8. Hexer - "Bathyskaph" from "Abyssal" (2023) [submitted by Sonny]

9. The Howling Void - "Impenetrable Gloom" from "Into Darkness Ever More Profound" (2023)

10. The Old Dead Tree - "We Cry as One" from "The Nameless Disease" (2003)

11. Noothgrush - "Hatred for the Species" from "Noothgrush / Corrupted Split" (1997)

12. Fimir - "One Eyed Beast" from "Tomb of God" (2021)

13. Paradise Lost - "Frozen Illusion - Frozen Illusion Demo 1989" from "Drown In Darkness - The Early Demos" (2009) [submitted by Daniel]

14. Buzzov•en - "A Lack Of" from "...At a Loss" (1998)

15. Temple of the Fuzz Witch - "Bathsheba" from "Temple of the Fuzz Witch" (2019)

16. Khanate - "Skin Coat" from "Khanate" (2001) [submitted by Sonny]

17. Void of Silence - "Opus VIII: Universal Separation" from "Criteria ov 666" (2002) [submitted by Daniel]

Good choice Ben, I love that album. I will take the Black Oath album.

OK, thanks Daniel.